


of hands and associated sensor arrays

by cryptic_dragon



Category: Destiny (Video Game)
Genre: Consensual Sex, Exo hands, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, M/M, Made-up scientific jargon, NSFW, One-Shot, PWP, Threesome - F/M/M, Why did I even write this?, made-up Exo anatomy, organic vs inorganic experiences, sensor play, they're still figuring each other out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-15
Updated: 2017-05-15
Packaged: 2018-11-01 00:30:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10910598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cryptic_dragon/pseuds/cryptic_dragon
Summary: "She punches things for fun, Cayde, and now here you are, making the very idea of me justtouchingone of these same two hands sound like I kicked her in the groin."Cayde's pause was thoughtful this time. "That's actually not a bad comparison, Hunter. Let's go with that."





	of hands and associated sensor arrays

**Author's Note:**

> So I've had an _actual_ tale using these three characters in the works for a while now, random snippets and bits and pieces finally at a point where I can pull them together into one cohesive story, and then _this_ happens. FML...

    The revelation came upon him by accident.  
    They were in one of the myriad bars down in the City, a rare night where they were each having an overnight stay in the Tower. Jasel Van, a tall, strapping specimen of the Awoken race, had procured them a table, his burning eyes and disdainful stare almost daring any of the casual barhoppers to try and take it from him. De Zu-7, with her blue-plated face and sparkling magenta optics, had gone to find a waitress and possibly something for them to drink. Katje Pel, his wiry frame and petite stature quite opposite to that of Van even though both men were Awoken, had taken it upon himself to go and find her when she did not immediately return. The tiny Hunter winnowed through the crowded bar like a fish through water.  
    Katje found De Zu wringing some kind of glowing blue liquid out of one of her ever-present gloves with an irritated look on her face. A half-filled glass stood on a tall table beside her, and she shot a sharp glare at the ambient crowd. Apparently there had been some sort of accident. "Everything okay?" he asked, reaching out to take her hand—  
    She gasped, pulled away as if burned, and he blinked in confusion. "Sorry," said Katje, thinking perhaps he had scratched or grabbed too hard somehow, maybe hit some sort of obscure pressure point. Or had he surprised her? He extended his hand to her again. "Come on, Van is this way! We'll lose one another in this crowd if we don't stick close."  
    Quickly, she removed her remaining glove as well as her Ghost flared into view. Sunny waggled his rear pins in amusement and produced a pair of tactile gloves for her, spinning plasteel and sapphire wire about sensitive finger-pads like yarn on a loom. She flexed her hands experimentally as he vanished just as quickly, grabbed what remained of her drink and took Katje's arm as it flailed from behind a living wall of bodies. She squeezed once to let him know it was her, and then found herself guided through the throng by the tiny Hunter.  
    "Where did the new gloves come from?" asked Katje after they had thrown themselves down upon seats at the table Van had claimed for them.  
    "Me?" Van blinked up at Katje with bright amber eyes, streaks of pale white shifting across his blue face. His long, white hair was pulled back into an artfully mussed ponytail; some may have merely deemed it 'messy', but Zu and Katje knew exactly how long it took him to _get_ it that way. "I'm not wearing any—"  
    Katje rolled his own eyes, taking one of Zu's hands in his own and turning it over to critically inspect the weave of her new accessory. "They don't match your clothes."  
    "Sure they do," she lied quickly, pulling her hand from his grasp and shifting closer to Van.  
    "Do you not want me to touch your hand? Are you hurt, De Zu?" But she did not explain further, instead peering intently over Van's large shoulder.  
    "What have you got there?"  
    "Nothing important," he murmured, though he did not look up again at either of them. She blinked at the tiny lettering as it scrawled across the pad, leaned on him contentedly with one elbow, but — to Katje's rapidly growing interest — did not touch him with her hands. The pink-haired Hunter found himself suddenly very curious about her new aversion.  
    His own Ghost shifted like a drowsing cat within his mind. _It isn't new_ , said Agua, remaining hidden so that the target of their interest would not grow uncomfortable. _Think, Katje — can you remember a time when she ever touched you and it was not with covered hands? I'm no expert on Exo, but perhaps Cayde would know the reason._  
    Deciding to let it go for now, Katje flagged down a waitress and ordered them something to eat, watching fondly as Van barked a short laugh at whatever Zu had just said. The pair of Titans looked up at him expectantly, and he moved around to the side of Van not currently occupied by an Exo female to not only hear them better, but also take a good look at the data-pad himself. He silently resolved to bite the bullet the next chance he got and ask Cayde what the deal was regarding Exos and their hands.  
  
    "Cayde," said Katje when next he reported in from his perch in a tree far, far out in the European Dead Zone. His main objective was complete, Agua was already in the process of transmitting a small cache of Golden Age information to the Tower Cryptarchy as ordered, so he knew he had a bit of time to regroup and collect himself before progressing on to the next objective. Cayde generally kept his feeds and lines from Hunters out in the wild or on missions private; Katje was certain enough he would be afforded the usual privacy this time, too. "As a Vanguard Mentor, part of your duty is as an ambassador of the Exo race to newborns who perhaps died before your creation, correct?"  
    "Technically," Cayde mused. "It gets a little trickier when there's two Mentors of the same race. Historically, other Tower folks have stepped up in that case to help the newborns with any personal questions that might ease their integration into Guardian life, but for now, you're right." He paused. "Why do you ask?"  
    "I actually had a question—"  
    "If you're wanting to know where baby Exo come from, ask your Titan girlfriend. For all I know, she could have some sort of non-standard undercarriage or other deviant internal make requiring special consideration... maybe imperial measurements." Katje could hear the smirk in his voice as surely as he would be able to see it on a visual feed.  
    "I'm going to tell her you said that."  
    "Good, I'll be able to try out some of the new moves Zavala taught me for dodging those t-rex punches of theirs." Katje barked a laugh at that one; old class prejudices died hard. "All right, what's your question?"  
    "I just noticed recently that she doesn't ever touch anyone with her hands except when they're covered in some fairly thick gloves or gauntlets, that's all. Now that I've been paying attention to it, I realized I haven't seen a single bare-handed Exo except for a few medics and a crypto-archaeologist I met once working under Master Rahool, and even while gloved or gauntleted I don't see other Exo touch one another with their hands nearly as often as Humans and Awoken. Objects yes, sentient beings no. What's the deal?"  
    The Hunter Vanguard made the sound of his throat clearing itself delicately, even though he neither breathed nor owned an esophagus. "Well... remember that for the most part, Exo were created to go where Humanity could not. Some models were created solely to fight things, but others, like your Titan apparently, have hands filled with very delicate, finely attuned sensors for exploration purposes."  
    "So you're saying that when I grabbed her hand last night at the bar—"  
    "Wait, you grabbed her _bare hand_? In _public_?" Cayde honestly sounded shocked. "How on earth did she give you that opportunity without explaining it herself?"  
    "I think she'd spilled something on her gloves and was attempting to dry them out? I don't really know."  
    "Look," said Cayde with a sigh. "I'm only going to say this once: Be gentle with an Exo's bare hand. The metacarpalophalangic sensor array is incredibly sensitive to pressure, temperature, Light, and a whole horde of other factors most Awoken and Human folks have the luxury of never having to consciously think about, and it's usually difficult to tone back the intensity of the readings without disabling it entirely — basically making our hands completely numb. I'm not really sure how else to describe what goes on in our hands to help you see how important they are to us. Think of your most precious body part, one you would rather die than receive injury toward, and treat her hands accordingly."  
    "She punches things for fun, Cayde. I've watched her rip a Vandal in half, witnessed her crush the muzzle of a Centurion's missile launcher just because he was annoying her from across a canyon. Hell, one time she decided to twist the end of a Fallen Walker ballistic into a pretzel shape just because it singed her favorite mark, and now here you are, making the very idea of me just _touching_ one of these same two hands sound like I kicked her in the groin."  
    Cayde's pause was thoughtful this time. "That's actually not a bad comparison, Hunter. Let's go with that."  
  
    A few days later, when Katje had returned from the wilds and upon consulting with Van, the two Awoken began to formulate a plan. De Zu was currently away on Venus, they expected her back at the Tower any day now. When she checked in with them, Van mentioned to her how nice it would be to go down into the City together, an idea to which she agreed wholeheartedly. "Every time I try to visit the City, the Commander always hits me with another mission. It'll be nice to have some down-time with you guys. I promise if I'm offered another assignment as soon as I report in, I won't take it."  
    Both Katje _and_ Van realized full well that this was a lie. The woman had been a slave to duty as long as they'd both known her. They both spoke to Cayde, Katje mentioning that Zu had not had a moment's peace since the three of them had together subdued the escaped Archon Priest on Venus, and Cayde promised to speak to Commander Zavala about it. Thus, on a bright, clear morning a few days later, Zu met Van out in the Tower Plaza with an enthusiastic hug wearing civilian clothing and not any of her usual armor. Her hands, as usual, were covered by a thick pair of gloves of the same orange hue as the paint splash across her blue face. She buried her face in his chest and they took turns picking each other up, twirling one another around like giddy schoolchildren.  
    "You're excited this morning," said Van, a broad grin splitting his pale blue face. "Is it just because you get to see _me_?"  
    "No way," she teased, lightly elbowing him. "It's because I get _three whole days_ before I'm due to report in for another mission!" She threw her arms into the air, danced around like a woman possessed, gave the big purple ball a good kick across the grassy mezzanine toward the Vanguard bounty-bot, and Van laughed at her antics. "Now!" She clapped her hands together briskly. "Where's Katje? I know he's not on a mission either, so it's time for us all to go get plastered down in the City. I've sent Sunny on some errands so he can't play stick-in-the-mud for us, and you tell Jasmine to take a hike too. I'm talking all day bar-hopping, here—"  
    "Well _really_ ," said Van's white-shelled Ghost as she appeared in a puff of silvery Light.  
    "Er... no insult intended, of course," Zu quickly backpedaled nervously.  
     _Go ahead, Jasmine. Find something else to do._ She was aware of the plan and, though pleased overall at the strengthening bond between the three Guardians, wanted nothing to do with the impending physicality. She twirled her rear pins and flew off in a silent huff.  
    "Damn," Zu groaned, unaware of their internal conversation. "Should I buy her a flower while we're in the City today to apologize? Or perhaps a nice new shell? I think she'd look quite nice in pale yellow."  
    "I don't think that'll be necessary." He shrugged. "Anyway, Katje's actually not feeling well today," he replied. "He said for the two of us to go on without him."  
    Zu groaned, shoulders slumping. "I _knew_ it. Something _had_ to go wrong today." Then she straightened just as abruptly. "Well, I'm certainly not gonna go shopping or get drunk without him. We should go see if we can cheer him up."  
    "I'm sure a visit from _you_ will be just what he needs to help him settle down and rest," said Van mildly.  
    "Was that a joke?"  
    "At _your_ expense? Never," he said, absolutely straight-faced, and Zu laughed at him as he led the way off toward the Guardian quarters.  
  
    Van's quarters were in a quiet portion of the Tower, a six-person dwelling meant for a full fireteam that he had bought by saving up vast quantities of glimmer, telling the requisition lead that he intended to move 'his fireteam' into the structure and then never really choosing anyone. Tower Management had never bothered to force the issue. Over the years he had not filled it with souvenirs of battle or curiosities brought back from the wild, but rather with tasteful furniture, bright paintings, silk flowers in glass vases. He enjoyed the space and freedom it offered and had spent quite a bit of time cooped up there for various reasons, and so he had made it the sort of haven in which one would _want_ to stay for a while, not just a stopping point between missions (De Zu's quarters were tiny and spartan, though her walls groaned with battle trophies) or a cubbyhole in which to store all of his stolen possessions (Katje's quarters had a larger floorpad but were stuffed to the gills with little curios and Golden Age knick-knacks gleaned from various crash sites and enemy nests). Van actually had a full kitchen and a bathroom with a spa that comfortably seated six people, should he ever have opportunity to host such a party in his abode. Lately, whenever any of them had any time to themselves between missions, they had taken to spending their time at Van's place — with his full permission, of course.  
    They entered without ceremony and were greeted by groaning from the living room. "I'm dying," came the weak voice of Katje, who did indeed look very pale as he lay stretched out on the sofa, a thin blanket pulled up over him to his lavender chin. His pink curls were plastered to his damp forehead. A video feed of some sort was playing on a screen hung on the wall, but Van grabbed a remote and shut it off as they entered the room.  
    "If you were really dying, Agua would surely revive you," said Zu, stopping beside the couch. "What's wrong?"  
    "I'm telling you, I'm not gonna make it," he said, and he gave a weak cough.  
    "Is this some sort of new disease that somehow affects Guardians?" Zu still seemed unimpressed, but as Van had not also begun to tease him or joke around, she continued to take him at a dubious face value. "Katje, what's wrong?"  
    The man fell into a stronger fit of coughing, and Zu quickly knelt beside the sofa and helped him to sit up, passing a gentle hand through his short pink curls. Her mouthplates twisted in dissatisfaction and she removed one of her gloves, then the other. His eyes closed, Katje could feel the light, warm touch of smooth tactile sensors as they ghosted across his forehead, and then a warm, gentle weight settled upon his brow. He felt her fingers twitch as they remained there for a moment, then both of her hands moved to cup his face, felt at his neck and shoulders. The silence between them was almost deafening as Van watched her concentrate on whatever data her hands were feeding her.  
    "Your temperature is a steady one hundred degrees Fahrenheit, same as any other optimally functioning Awoken," she declared in disgust, "and even though you _look_ like you're sweating, you probably just splashed some water on your face — either that, or you need to drastically increase your salt intake. Your breathing is in no way obstructed, so quit with the bullshit coughing." Her optics narrowed. "Your brainwaves are heightened and nervous... I think you're faking being sick for sympathy. What's going on, and why did you lie to me to bring me here? Both of you?" she realized, remembering that it had been Van who had told her Katje was sick in the first place and he, too, should've known that the man was feigning illness. She reached for her hastily discarded gloves—  
    Katje shot Van a _look_ , and Van quickly scooped them up before she could. "Come on, give those back," she demanded, reaching for them again, but then Katje carefully, deliberately laid a hand on one blue-metal wrist, ran his fingers over the time-worn joints and pivots there, and an odd, strangled sort of noise sounded at the back of her throat as he gently touched one of her finger pads. "W-what—"  
    "Relax," said Katje, sitting forward on the sofa and spreading the hand out across his knees, running one slim blue fingertip across her open palm. She shivered, transfixed, and Van moved to sit behind her, his arms wrapped firmly about her torso and his head resting against her back. "We've got you."  
    "I don't understand." Her magenta gaze was fixated on Katje's finger as it traced long, slow lines down each of her own twitching digits. The feeling of his skin sliding against hers of its own volition was mesmerizing. "Why... H-how did you find out—"  
    "You never take off your gloves," said Katje, "though we've certainly seen you take off other things recently. Did you think we wouldn't figure it out eventually?" Van's hands had begun to roam freely beneath her clothing, stroking her chest cushioning and moving down over her plated stomach, her upper thighs, down into her groin area and then back upward. Katje's fingers played lightly over her own like feathers now and she began to squirm under their combined attention, spine arching as her arms and legs began to twist and fidget, another glitchy sort of noise issuing from a speaker located behind parted mouthplates. Her palms glowed a bright magenta color, the same as all of her other active sensors. He laughed delightedly.  
    "Most organics... don't care enough to know. Don't ask." She was obviously struggling to keep her thoughts focused enough to form a proper reply. "And not all Exo are the same. We just tell people our hands are sensitive." She twisted and swayed in Van's grasp, but he kept her tightly pinned. "In fact, I would not be able to react in this manner had I not already activated them... I mean..." Her free hand flailed, caught Van's thigh and gripped it like a lifeline as he murmured something directly into the nape of her neck. He hissed, but not in pain. "There are barriers usually in place. Layers... programming safeguards," she continued to babble, and her hand wormed its way about the outside of his thigh to take hold of him more firmly. Van was forced to shift in his seat as a rising bulge between them became more pressing, his need more urgent. "And I can always disable them if I must, but you two caught me completely off guard just now and—"  
    "Well now _that_ wasn't very fair of us, was it?" Katje murmured, lifting Zu's hand to his mouth and placing an ardent kiss upon her palm, which radiated a bright sort of heat at him. Her fingers locked in position, she cried out and slumped sideways onto Van's plush carpet. Katje pushed the couch and a coffee table aside to give them all more room as Van rolled her onto her back, divesting her of the rest of her civilian clothing — and himself of his own. Katje did not follow suit, preferring to keep in fullest teasing contact with the glowing synthetic flesh of her hand. He _did_ sit on the carpet beside her, however, as Van knelt between legs which spread easily at his lightest touch. They had long known about the somewhat standardized perineal sensors and the reception port which were analogous to Human and Awoken female genitalia and reproductive structures, they had already experimented with these parts of her before to see how well they all fit together — so to speak. No amount of play with any of her other body parts or sensors had produced such an immediate and strong loss of self-control as had Katje's recent discovery of her metacarpalophalangar sensor array.  
    Van reached for a bottle of lube that had been strategically placed nearby, poured some of it out onto his fingers, and then carefully worked said fingers up into Zu's data reception port. He was fairly sure her body was more than ready for him, but they were still somewhat new to this sort of thing with one another and he felt it best to take no chances. She bucked her hips upward from the floor, pressing her main perineal sensor into his palm as two of his fingers curled against one of her interior sensors — yes, she was _definitely_ ready. He quickly removed his hand from her, worked the rest of the lube down onto his own erect member which flexed outrageously before him at its fullest attention. Then he pushed Zu's knees upward, settling himself between her thighs, aiming the pale lavender head of his cock at her tight opening with one hand as the other settled upon her hip, leaving wet black smudges across the deep gray of her quivering plated torso.  
    "De Zu," said Katje, and he brought his mouth back to her palm, warm as a sun before his lips. "Are you ready?"  
    "R-ready?" she gasped incredulously, cooling fans working overtime to dispel the rampant heat that had filled her, optics flickering from the hulking white-haired man preparing to enter her most private data receptacle to the much smaller pink-haired man who held one half of her most sensitive sensor array captive and at his mercy. As she watched, Katje locked eyes with her and, as Van began to press forward, slowly easing himself within her like a hand into a tight-fitting glove, the Hunter carefully, deliberately ran his broad, flat purple tongue from the base of her palm up to her middle fingertip, taking said finger into his mouth and sucking gently. His tongue danced over its pointed tip, down the sides, and the feather-light suction titillated every single delicate sensor point there. She gave a shrill, metallic squeal and Van suddenly gasped, grunted, thrust forcefully into her.  
    "God, she's tighter than last time!" he panted, straining with effort to control himself and his hips began to roll with a strong, measured pace. For the moment, she was hopelessly lost in whatever Katje was doing, but he needed a lifeline himself and so he reached up to grasp her free hand, interlacing her fingers with his own, running a thumb over that glowing palm also. Zu gasped and her head snapped forward, dilated optics flickering between him and Katje at intervals as if she were desperately attempting to focus, to remember everything she possibly could about this moment.  
    "K-Katje," she said, finding it very difficult to form actual words, her thoughts mere bursts of half-garbled static as she tore her hand away from him with one concerted effort. She reached toward the discarded bottle of lube, then began to tug at the top of his pants. "Please," she glitched out, "let me—"  
    "We're doing this for _you_ ," he demurred. "You didn't really get as into it as we did when we tried fooling around before, so we did our homework and resolved to do our best to fully please you." In truth, though she had seemed to enjoy her participation in their prior attempt at physical love with one another, Katje had been unable to produce much effect by kissing her in any of the usual favorite places on an organic like the throat, shoulders, or chest and, as she did not have an organic digestive tract but rather a series of bladed gears in her mouth and throat meant to perform initial matter breakdown for emergency energy, tongue kissing had been ruled out of the question. Even though Van had been the one to take charge of stimulating her perineal sensors and utilizing the data reception port to pleasure both himself and she in that manner, Katje had spent much of his time focusing on Van instead of Zu since she would not react to any of his attentions paid, and Van had in turn focused on Katje. Now that they knew how to stimulate her properly, to truly include her in their triad, this was their chance at lovemaking redemption. "This moment is for you," Katje protested, though his resolve had weakened in the face of her insistent petting, and he finally removed his clothing as requested. "Zu, are you sure—"  
    But she already had the bottle of lube in her hand and was squeezing its contents onto her own stomach as he sat back down, his own thick member fully exposed to her. She swiped the glowing hand through the wet glob and then took hold of his cock as carefully as she could — which, as she was currently being pounded quite thoroughly by Van, was perhaps not as truly gentle as she would normally be able to manage but Katje's appreciative groan said louder than words that he did not mind in the slightest. Their extended foreplay had left him no less ready than the others. He licked his lips and whimpered as her thumb ran up and down the underside of his penis, danced across its tip as her other fingers played over the top of the shaft. He could feel the bright warmth as her palm slipped slowly up and down his cock, and — to his pleasant surprise — she seemed to react with no less rapture than when he had kissed it instead. The sensation of his own burning heat and lube-slicked velvet skin made her gasp and shudder all anew. Clearly there would be more handjobs in their collective future.  
    Katje shifted, got up onto his hands and knees and repositioned himself to allow Zu better purchase. She began to work his shaft at the same brisk tempo Van was setting inside her. Dazed, he reached out to brush the damp, sweat-soaked hair from Van's forehead, and then his fingers curled into the long pale strands and pulled him into a kiss, their lips crushing together, each man greedily drinking of the other as if they were life-giving air. Their circle was complete. Beneath them, Zu fritzed and gave a sharp, digital cry, her legs locking behind Van's back as a series of pressure plates within her reception port began to pulse in a rhythm meant to extract engrammatic data from an Exo but, with an organic, merely served to pull him swiftly over the edge into orgasm. Van bucked his hips, twisted, howled into Katje's mouth, carnelian eyes shut tightly against the sensations washing over him. As for Katje, his member was still locked in Zu's tight grip and under her ministrations, his breath came more quickly than ever. Van was still shuddering in his own ecstasy, but he finally released Zu's hand and moved his face to Katje's chest, taking one of his pert nipples into his mouth and tweaking the other between thumb and forefinger. Katje gasped, stars dancing before blank blue eyes and he, too, gave a hoarse cry as he came, his cock pulsing in Zu's grip as thick, pearl-white spunk shot forth, splattering obscenely across Van's chest and Zu's stomach. She continued to work him more slowly now as Van caught him with both hands, murmured beautiful nothings into his slick blue chest, and gradually Katje returned to himself, pushing away from them both and falling backward to slump against the side of the long-forgotten sofa in a blissful daze.  
    Van chuckled, pushing one of Zu's thighs upward and removing his now-softened member from her. The leg hit the floor with a sharp thud, as did the other when he levered himself up onto his knees. "De Zu, can you move?" he asked.  
    "N-no," she said, her voice still glitchy, and she cleared her vocal buffers sharply. "I can't. I wasn't... really ready for that today," she admitted.  
    "We didn't hurt you, did we?" Van asked in sudden alarm, hastily moving back to her side to inspect her limbs for damage.  
    "No, no," she laughed, and the fingers of the hand that had so recently held Katje within their grasp flexed in midair, drips of his milky seed gleaming salaciously in the late morning light that still streamed through his window. Her palms no longer glowed. "I mean, I hadn't bothered to properly recharge when I returned from Venus. That was very fun," she said, her voice somewhat dreamy, "but also very draining. I'm about to hit my emergency shutdown mark."  
    "Oh no you don't — not before we clean up," said Van, wiping at his chest and then at Zu's torso as Katje laughed weakly from where he sat.  
    "I'd apologize for that, but I can't really say I'm sorry about it."  
    "Don't worry, we wouldn't believe you anyway." Zu's voice was still quite distant.  
    Katje leaned down to plant a kiss on her cheek. "You were marvelous," he said, eyes glowing as he stared down at her. "And so were you." Van was the next recipient of a firm kiss, this one on lightly bruised lips that parted to receive his tongue. Van inhaled sharply and moaned, taking Katje by the shoulders and pinning him to the floor. Katje lay there in surprise, eyes wide as Van's questing tongue explored every possible corner of his mouth.  
    Katje gasped as they parted to breathe. "You can't possibly be ready to—"  
    "No," said Van, releasing Katje and moving to stand. His mast was not entirely flaccid anymore, but neither was it completely hard again. "Maybe after a bit of rest."  
    "Is that a promise or a threat?" Katje grinned, watching it flex upward slightly.  
    "I'm serious, guys," said Zu weakly. "I really can't move."  
    "All right, all right." Van reached down, taking her by the upper arm and helping her to sit up. Katje reached out to take her hand only to stop himself suddenly, grabbing her forearm instead. Together, they got the woman to her feet where she staggered, lurching forward with a yelp. Van snaked an arm beneath her shoulders and helped her to the bathroom, easing her down into the tub before joining her himself. The caress of warm, bubbling water over her legs brought feeling and strength back into them and she relaxed into its liquid embrace, curling into Van's side. He wrapped an arm about her with a contented grunt.  
    "So," said Katje, leaning over the side of the bath and offering her a washcloth to help clean herself with. "What did you think?"  
    "I _think_ ," she replied, carefully testing her arms as strength and feeling began to return to them too, "that you had better call in a couple more sick days with the Vanguard." She reached out to caress his face and he closed his eyes, leaning into the warmth of her palm. "Be convincing, Katje, and I'll help make it worth your while."  
    "I think _I'll_ be the judge of that," he said lightly.  
    She laughed, then reached up to caress Van's cheek as he wiped himself down with the washcloth. Her optics filled with sudden regret, and she looked down at her hands, their starry pink-purple glow fading as they watched. "I wish I could kiss you properly," she admitted wistfully, "and do things for you the way an organic can."  
    "If we wanted 'an organic', we would have one," said Van, taking one of her wrists in hand and carefully turning her palm upward. "But we don't. You're more to us than just your body, Zu, and we want _you_ ," he declared, planting a gentle kiss into her hand which quickly flared into life to receive it.  
    "We are a mixed trio," Katje agreed, kissing her other open palm no less tenderly than Van had. "But I think we fit well together, don't you?"  
    "Is that a rhetorical question regarding the compatibility of our personalities, or is it an actual question regarding the compatibility of your genital structures, erogenous zones, and my physical sensor arrays?" She gave them each a lopsided grin. "Because in truth, I think we've covered all our bases at this point."  
    "And _that_ ," Katje kissed her brow this time as Van chuckled helplessly, "is why we love you."  
    "I love you too," she replied, snuggling against Van, reaching out for Katje. "Both of you."  



End file.
